Author: Agustina Marianacci

I’ve been actively studying the English language since the age of 5, when my mother decided that speaking English would be an asset for me in the future. I don’t think she anticipated how much of an asset and what an enormous part of my life it would turn into. I’m now a full time English-Spanish translator, editor and interpreter living in Wellington, New Zealand, blogging about languages, this beautiful profession and other such things at translationswitham.com.

You can find the full review here, together with other pieces on the ethics of machine translation, indigeneity and linguistic validation of patient-reported outcome instruments, among others. Go have a read! Do it!

It’s been nearly a year since my last piece and I have one excuse which is only partly true, but you’re gonna have to roll with it: I’ve been doing postgrad and working full time. However, because I truly love what I’m doing, I find myself permanently excited by the content I’m being taught. Around a week ago, I had an epiphany and managed to truly understand why I do what I do. Without further ado, this is my rant of 2018, just in time for International Translation Day.

Interpreting models have developed over the years to reflect interpreting theories and the evolution of our role. From machines to allies, interpreters are experiencing the consequences of greater social awareness and the acknowledgment of power intrinsic to our profession.

A month ago (and I’ve been postponing this piece for that long), I attended a course entitled Cultural and Bilingual Translation through Text Analysis, hosted by Dr Elaine Espíndola. Among other things, I found myself reflecting upon erasure through translation. I’ve been thinking about erasure of minorities a lot in 2017, but it never occurred to me that it could be linked to my very own profession.

Hello, everyone! It’s been a while! 2017 has been a long year, what can I say. I revamped this website, though, so you’ll have to give me some credit.

I’m back here to share this beautiful certificate I got from the people at NZTC Interpreting, from the New Zealand Translation Centre, one of the translation and interpreting agencies I work with as a freelancer.

I have some (wonderful) friends who work in tech, and one of them organises a coding workshop for beginners called Rails Girls, where women learn a bit about the Ruby programming language. The aim of the event is to encourage female presence in the tech world, traditionally dominated by men. I decided to enroll because… why not? It seems to me that basic coding knowledge would be very handy for any translator. It might even lead to website and other IT-related translation work. It might help with the creation of professional sites such as this one, which I’ve been looking into updating. The possibilities are always open.

Somehow, while I was working on the translations into Spanish of the Treaty of Waitangi a year ago, I didn’t realise it would eventually become a book. I mean, I knew that was the purpose of it, but I didn’t envisage the final result.

Today I received the book in the mail and I have no words to express how absolutely perfect it is. The design is excellent. I mean, who came up with the idea of writing the originals in the flaps so that people reading the translations would be able to compare them to the source at a glance? That’s genius!

Congratulations to the New Zealand Society of Translators and Interpreters, I am so proud to have participated in this project and delighted to be a part of this beautiful community.

Last Thursday I “attended” an online workshop on quality management and terminology, focused on national and international standards, such as ISO, IEC and IRAM. Delivered by Sworn Translator Silvia Bacco, I found it to be packed with information that, sometimes, we are not too keen on getting into because it involves long, dense texts about processes and regulations. However, the workshop was a good reminder that there are increasingly more national and international standards regulating our profession.

I came across this image and thought it conveys the perfect message I want to transmit today.

Happy International Translation Day! Thanks to everyone who fights on a regular basis for translators’ rights; to all translators who are permanently improving themselves and learning new skills; to all the people who are constantly working to consolidate our profession; and to all linguists who strive for perfection while understanding we are allowed to make mistakes, because we are human.

Today I want to write about translation, the language we use to speak about translation and the brotherhood I feel like we should become.

I have just finished reading Is That a Fish in Your Ear? The Amazing Adventure of Translation by David Bellos. The book is a compendium of interesting information and food for thought. And I’m always hungry, you know? Really. All the time.